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“It is. It’s what everyone calls me. I really like hearing you say it,” I admit to her. “Is that stupid?”
“No, and now you’re just procrastinating.” She pokes me in the chest with her finger. “What did you need to tell me? What truth?”
“Oh. Right.” I wet my lips before I force the words out. “I lied to you.”
I don’t like the way her face looks, like I just made her heart sink. “About?”
“About…” Goddamn it. I can’t do it. I can’t tell her that the man who tried to kidnap her is the man who raped her mother and conceived her.
But now she’s waiting for me to say something after I opened my big mouth.
“You lied about what?” With a frown, she crosses her arms over her chest defensively as if preparing herself to hate me.
Fuck, I don’t want her to ever hate me.
So I decide to give her a different truth. One she’ll hopefully forgive me for.
“I lied to you…about the nonprofit.”
“What nonprofit?”
“The one I mentioned. You know, that I said ‘my friend’ was starting for vets that day that we had lunch?”
“Oh. Okay.” Her arms thankfully uncross. “That’s…that’s not so bad, even if I’m a little disappointed there’s no possibility of a job. Why did you lie about that?”
“Because I…I don’t know. Because I wanted to impress you or have something in common with you. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she says with a sweet, forgiving smile.
“The truth is, the idea for the charity was mine. But that’s all it was then, an idea. Then the other day, I started researching what it would take to make it happen.”
Her eyes light up. “Really? You’re launching a nonprofit organization?”
“I’m gonna try, I guess. Any chance you could help me?”
“Of course I’ll help you!” she says excitedly.
“Yeah?”
“Absolutely! It’s the reason why I majored in it,” she replies. “But, um, there’s something I should probably tell you too.”
Now it’s my turn to frown. “You can tell me anything, Lyla.”
“I didn’t graduate,” she blurts out. “I dropped out before I finished my last two years.”
“Oh.”
“Everything started to get so overwhelming, you know? I’m not sure why I thought I could ever run an entire business when my father didn’t think I was responsible enough for even a driver’s license until I was eighteen!”
“I know Isaac’s been overly protective of you, but after what happened today…”
“I get it, I do. Maybe he was right to think I’m incapable of taking care of myself. He never worried about Laurel.”
I wince at the sound of her name. Dammit. I thought I was past that shit.
“Sorry,” Lyla says. “I didn’t mean to kill the mood.”
“You didn’t,” I reply honestly. “I want you so much there’s nothing that could kill my mood.”
